Western officials ‘colluding with people
traffickers’

By Rory Carroll, Rome, The Guardian, 23 July 2002

Some western officials are undermining the fight against human
trafficking by becoming cronies of Balkan pimps and having sex with
the prostitutes they are supposed to rescue, according to a damning
report published yesterday.

Criminal gangs who earn billions of pounds by trading women and
children have corrupted elements of the local and international police
forces and border guards at the forefront of Europe's crackdown.

The report, commissioned by the United Nations and the Organisation
for Security and Cooperation in Europe, says trafficking in
south-eastern Europe is growing worse despite—and in some cases
because of—the international campaign to end the trade.

“Stories about local and international police frequenting bars,
using the services of women and being on good terms with the owners
and traffickers are legion,” the report adds.

The presence of foreign soldiers in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, and
western officials in other eastern European countries, is said to have
fuelled the industry.

“The international market for sex services as well as local
demand has expanded, particularly in countries where there is a large
international presence,” the report says.

Such an environment deters prostitutes—in many cases teenage
girls forced into the sex industry—from trying to escape, says
the report, citing an alleged case in Sarajevo, the capital of
Bosnia-Herzegovina, where police handed women over to traffickers
after arresting them in a brothel.

“There is also information about Bulgarian border police who
first took money from women to take them safely back to Bulgaria, only
to deliver them back to the traffickers for additional money,”
the report adds.

Since illegal immigration became an electoral issue EU governments
have promised improved coordination and resources to combat human
trafficking but the reality, according to the 270-page report, is a
shambles which has left women and children more vulnerable to
exploitation.

“The attempts to come to grips with the problem of human
trafficking have so far been toothless and without much
success. Despite increased attention at the political level, few
states have taken adequate measures to protect individuals from
trafficking and its related human rights abuses,” the report
says.

Not all of the women are abused. Ethnic conflict and economic meltdown
have shredded incomes and opportunity, especially for women, and many
choose to enter the west illegally to work as waitresses, nannies and
prostitutes, the report points out.

It adds: “They are able to achieve their goals [and] are often
able to improve the economic condition of their family and their own
position within it.”

But, according to the report, there is a separate category of women
and children who end up the property of traffickers. It says they
should be treated as victims of crime, not illegal immigrants and
points out that they seldom get medical care for possible sexual
diseases, or the chance to testify in court against the traffickers.

The criminal gangs are increasingly bolstered by ex-prostitutes who
return home to recruit girls. Such women have been known to manipulate
aid agencies, pretending they are fleeing their pimps, to gain a free
flight.

Authorities pressured for results have allegedly distorted
statistics. “For example, prevention of trafficking is used as
an argument for refusing young women entry to a country or for
refusing to issue them a visa, and then, in the police statistics,
these cases are relabelled as successful cases of rescuing
’victims of trafficking’.”

Two people drowned and dozens were injured after an Italian coastal
patrol boat hit a motor dinghy packed with suspected illegal
immigrants and refugees near the Albanian coast, Italian customs
officials said yesterday.